London kids've external links!

Half of London babies are children of foreign-born mothers, Migrationwatch UK said, writes Vijay Dutt.

indiaUpdated: Jan 05, 2006 18:56 IST

Vijay Dutt PTI

Half of London babies are children of foreign-born mothers, according to Migrationwatch UK, an immigration think tank. It also claims that the rate of birth to mothers who are originally from abroad is also approaching 50 per cent in most other cities.

One in five of the 640,000 births in England and Wales in 2004 was to a mother born outside Britain.

The report warned that the rising number of families form outside Britain was causing communities to become more segregated. There would be no core culture with which to integrate.

From the statistics of various boroughs it is evident that the proportion of foreign-born mothers in a few areas with high minority populations is around 70 per cent.

In 2004, 124,562 babies were born to mothers from abroad. Of these 4.4 per cent were women from Europe, 2.6 from Africa, 2.5 per cent were Pakistanis, 1.4 Indians and 1.4 from Bangladesh, 0.5 per cent from the US and 0.2 from the Far East. Two-thirds of the babies also had a father who was not born in Britain.

The Immigrationwatch has blamed Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities for "chain migration". It said this was intensifying the formation of ghettos and setting back integration. It suggests that strict limits should be imposed on arranged marriages, with a partner from overseas. Figures of the cities with the highest level of babies born to mothers who were themselves born abroad:

London (where ethnic population is highest) 49%
Slough (Sizeable number of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus) 48%
Luton (high percentage of ethnic pop)44%
Leicester (majority of East African Gujaratis Muslims)38%
Birmingham (large population of Blacks, Muslims and Hindus)34%